(2025-10-10) A Part of the Community

Details

Author:	Athena
Summary:	Avrenne continues to meet with more of the pandaren crafters of the Wandering Isle, this time with Haoyu Goldenhaze, who has an interest in helping others and a history of connections to his communities. 2600~ words.
Rating:	T for Teen

The room that Vane leads Haoyu to is little more by comparison to the vastness of the foyer and the other rooms of the house, with the blue space decorated and arranged so that feels open and crisply neat, the windows letting in the clear October sun, the glimpse of movement here and there behind the sheer curtains of trees shifting in the stronger wind.

In front of that window is one of the two couches, and in front of that, the Duchess. She wears a long sleeved, rich brown velvet dress with an elaborate bodice of metal and bead embellishments, a satin overskirt that rustles as she rises to a full stand to greet her guest. Her golden hair has been woven into a complex braided chignon, with two extraordinary earrings formed of thread so thin it seems invisible with pure glass beads that seem to form suspended waterdrops framing her composed face.

Her hands are clasped in front of her, left over right, showing the wedding ring with its large diamond and sky sapphires with woven stormsilver and gold, and above her hands resting on an elegantly wrought gold chain is a case, large enough for something like a small watch to be kept inside, made of gold and trimmed with that silvery metal with an opalescent sheen of stormsilver to match her ring, and inset with a triangle of soft green sea glass that faces outwards.

"Your Grace, Haoyu Goldenhaze," Vain announces gravely, as he ushers the pandaren into the room.

"Mr. Goldenhaze," Avrenne greets the pandaren with a cool politeness that seems to be the lady's way.

Haoyu's clothes are clean but simple, dark reds and browns, and his tuft of black hair is pinned up with a plain red hair stick. Most of his face is white fur, but there are black fur markings around his eyes that give him the appearance of wearing a domino mask. He is almost as round as he is tall. For a jeweler, he is wearing no jewelry of his own.

"Hallo," Haoyu says cheerfully to Avrenne. "Your house is very nice."

"Thank you. It was constructed after the First War era at the behest of my husband's father, the late Admiral Fallon, and my sister-in-law Lady Sintha Fallon had the charge of decorating it in the past years, but I find it suits me." She nods to Vane, who takes his leave quietly enough that he practically vanishes.

"Please, have a seat," Avrenne suggests, as she herself returns to her seat, the broad lines of her dress taking up extra room on her couch in such a way that it makes her seem larger than she really is.

Haoyu nods solemnly and sits down on the other couch, which supports his weight very valiantly. He peers at Avrenne's earrings with open curiosity. "So… what do you do?"

Avrenne raises both brows because she cannot raise only the one, as she settles the folds of her dress into perfect place. "In what way do you mean, if I may ask for the clarification? I 'do' many things, but I don't expect that you wish for a list of all of them," Avrenne says. "If you mean as a profession, such as a jeweler, I don't have one. I am a Duchess of Lordaeron, and a Baroness of Stormwind; I do not labor."

Haoyu shrugs. "In the way that you would… define yourself as doing things? I used to be a student. Now I work in Gnomeregan, helping to… well, it's a lot of manual labor for me, and operating machines, but the goal is to get rid of the 'radiation' - this poison that makes gnomes sick. Does everybody know about Gnomeregan? I shouldn't assume. The world is so big."

"I expect the comparison is extraordinary, to have come from an isle, to an awareness of four known continents, but we have also found our world abruptly larger than previously thought, and so perhaps we share a common note. It is generally common knowledge at this point what happened to Gnomeregan in Year 25, and the subsequent difficulty the gnomes have faced since, but I cannot say that everyone is well apprised of the current situation.

"I myself know a great deal about the work being done at present, as well as the machines they have been using for this purpose, as I have a vested interest in gnomish technology, but I am always interested in hearing what a person from another culture might have to say on the matter, from their own perspective, as one never knows if one has failed to consider another angle of approach that might be invaluable," Avrenne says.

Haoyu nods along, still squinting at Avrenne's earrings. "I don't know much about machines or technology. My perspective is more just… they've lost their home, and it's sad. But they're working hard to clean it up so they can go back. Maybe if more people knew, they would come help."

"It is a tragedy, one I am familiar with on a more personal knowledge that some. My own homeland, Lordaeron, has been long lost to the Plague, though through the years there have been those working diligently to recover it, cleanse it, with some success, but it remains a long road," Avrenne says, a soft gray note of genuine grief winding its way through her voice before it's wound back into place behind a composed lady.

"I regret to inform you that it is not lack of knowledge of the situation that has created such small numbers in these efforts to allow us to go back to a tainted home, but that there are simply not enough people to spread out across these places, not with the wars and devastations we have faced in the past thirty years. Your efforts are more significant than you might realize, for being even just one more person who, but even a few months ago, was an impossible addition to draw away from another source. The strength of a sudden invigoration of a new population capable of doing so cannot be overstated."

"Oh." It's clear that Haoyu has never heard of Lordaeron, or at least has not retained the memory in a long list of facts about the world he is now a part of. "I'm sorry. Does your homeland need help too? I could help there after Gnomeregan is fixed."

Avrenne's eyes soften in a genuine expression of feeling, before she carefully arranges them once more. "I appreciate the sentiment, and your willingness to assist is commendable indeed. Lordaeron does need help, but the issue is…complex, and while I will not dissuade you from the impulse to assist, it's not easy to describe the possibilities in a limited meeting. Perhaps after you have finished your work with Gnomeregan, we might discuss it further."

She resettles her hands in her lap. "Although, I understand that you are a jewelcrafter, as they are known. Is it something you hope to do as a profession, but find yourself in need of supplementing your income through other work, such as with the gnome's recovery operations, or do you prefer a physical profession dominant to supply a jewelry working on the side?"

Haoyu nods, accepting this. Step one: save the hometown of the gnomes. Step two: come back to this lady and figure out how to help her homeland. "Alright. I'll come back when Gnomeregan is saved." He keeps peeking at her earrings.

"I do wire wrapping," Haoyu explains. "That can involve using cut gemstones as well as wire, but I don't cut the stones myself. And I need money to pay for gemstones." He looks thoughtful. "I've never sold any of my jewelry before. I make it for people to give to them. I don't usually make full pieces with no one in mind. Unless it's just practice."

"Wire wrapping," Avrenne repeats. "I'm not as familiar with that particular technique description as I would like to be. What does it entail, if I may ask?"

"You wrap the wire around itself," Haoyu says, sounding confused. "Like… Here." He sticks his left leg out and rolls up the bottom of his pants leg to show her the anklet he is wearing - it is made of copper wire, but coiled and twisted in a very elaborate design. He slips the anklet off of his ankle and offers it out for Avrenne to inspect.

Avrenne carefully extends both hands out to receive the item — it has a deliberateness to it that suggests it's a cultural note chosen to demonstrate respect — a small light of curiosity visible in her eyes.

"Oh, how lovely," she says, turning the anklet around to view it from different angles. She sets it down onto her lap carefully, and reaches up to unhook one of her earrings, offering it out to Haoyu in that same two handed way. "If I might offer my own in trade for your professional perusal. It's one of a favored jewelers of mine's latest creations."

Haoyu accepts the earring from her in much the same way. "Oh, I see. The drops are connected," he says, nodding approvingly as he admires the earring. "This material is so thin, it looks like these are raining from your ears."
"Yes, I was quite charmed by it. They are, naturally, exceedingly delicate though, and unsuitable for holding enchantments." Avrenne picks the anklet back up, inspecting it as she runs a finger so lightly over the coils that she is barely touching it. "This creation of yours, however, is an extraordinary concept for jewelry intended to see a person through combat. A coil like this is would have interesting applications. Tell me, do you work in enchanting the metal, or only decoratively?"

Haoyu very gingerly touches the thread with one finger. "I don't know anything about magic, but I could wrap to make special patterns if I knew what they were, or fix charms into place?" he guesses.

"I expect it would be an interesting experiment, and a worthwhile endeavor to incorporate for innovative reasons," Avrenne says with enough genuine enthusiasm to give a sense of interest, if not necessarily fully for the aesthetics. "Is the technique a traditional one, or your invention?"

"I didn't invent it," Haoyu says, wide-eyed. What a thought! "Grandfather Wu taught me when I was little." A beat. "It's not a family tradition, my parents were fisherfolk. Grandfather Wu wasn't actually my grandfather."

Avrenne considers the statement as she regards Haoyu with a slightly softer expression. "There are some who might draw certain lines between biology and semantics, but I think that it is worth considering the perspective that a person is who they act like. While it is true that you were not born of this person's line, that doesn't necessarily mean that he was not your grandfather, not in every way that truly matters." Her gaze flicks from Haoyu to the jewelry and back, and while her expression might be difficult to parse, her tone is not, and there is something motherly and gentle in it. "I could not help but notice the past tense. Did you lose him, your Grandfather Wu?"

Haoyu nods, and he offers Avrenne her earring back, looking down. "I was sort of passed around from home to home until I was old enough to train at Master Shang Xi's school," he says. "I don't know if I see everyone who helped take care of me after my parents died as my family, but they were all a part of my community."

Avrenne takes back her earring. "I am sorry for your losses. It is not an easy thing to lose one's family, not at any age, but the loss when one is young is particularly keen. I have four wards, which is another word for a relationship you might be familiar with, which is a type of guardianship. All of them lost their parents and families, at different times, and now they have me, and mine."

She uses the moment to hand over Haoyu's anklet. "Community is most important in those times, when the traditional family ties are broken through terrible circumstances. Much can be understood about a culture in how they treat the children and young people who need care. It speaks well of your people that there was something done to care for a child in need, and a place to go. The Alliance struggles with it ourselves, in finding the right ways, and the means to take care of so many children. We have orphanages, and it has been a long time since they were not always full."

Haoyu puts his anklet back on. "You took in children like me? To be a part of your family? That's really nice of you. The Wandering Isle doesn't have a lot of… orphans, so we don't really have a building for it. Just people."

Avrenne puts her earring back into place. "At the end of the day, that is all any of us truly have. An orphanage building is only as effective as the people are to take care of the children. I do truly hope that your people, of the Wandering Isle, and those of Pandaria of distant relation, never have need of buildings," she says in solemn sincerity. "Might I ask of this Master Shang Xi's school? I am not as familiar with the details of it as I would like be."

"Pretty much everyone who wants to learn to fight in some capacity learns how there," Haoyu explains. "Armed and unarmed martial arts, and also magic, for people with the talent to use it. There were many teachers, but Master Shang Xi was in charge of the whole academy. Now… I'm not sure who's taken over. We left shortly after he passed on."

"I see. It is always a great tragedy to lose a teacher, not only for the individual loss, but what is lost to the greater whole of their collected knowledge and abilities," Avrenne says. "Did Master Shang Xi have an apprentice?"

Haoyu shrugs. "He had many over the course of his life. Us included. But he sent us - that's the Gui Wei, the turtle guard - out to join the Alliance."

"Mm. He seems to have been farsighted then, for if you have learned of his ways, then perhaps it is a way that he might pass on his teachings to a far greater number than he achieved even among your island. You and your Gui Wei could be part of that stone skipped out on a lake, leaving ripples behind," Avrenne says. "I wonder if any among you have thoughts of perhaps opening a school here on the mainland."

It is clear that Haoyu had not thought of that, and he almost fries his brain trying to wrap his head around the enormity of that task. "Maybe Aysa Cloudsinger might," he says after a long pause.

Avrenne doesn't take any physical notes, but the mental one is jotted down accordingly. "Perhaps I will have the opportunity to meet this Aysa Cloudsinger soon. Later this month, there is to be a social event, a festival, meant for the celebration and recognition of the Alliance's two latest allies, the worgen and the pandaren. Several of your compatriots of the Wandering Isle will be in attendance, with booths to showcase their talents. It is open to the public for attendance, to be held in Stormwind City, should you like to attend."

"I love festivals." Haoyu nods eagerly. "Do you like them? Are you going to go?"

"I do intend to attend, yes, as will some of my household, including two of my wards, Finley Boutille, my eldest, and Isla Lenaire, my youngest," Avrenne says. "I find such events to be most productive and I am pleased by productivity." She's also lots of fun at parties. Ask her about the latest war machine technology!

Haoyu nods happily. "Maybe I'll see you all there, then."